Impact Studio Course: Business Model Design
BA 670: Designing the Equitable Enterprise
Business+Impact at the University of Michigan offers a graduate course on designing equitable enterprises. The course aims to help Detroiters create green energy businesses. It brings together students from across the university to work in academically diverse teams, including business, information technology, human services, and more. Students learned from faculty and outside experts about recent innovations in the building blocks of enterprise – and how to access capital, labor, supply, distribution, legal structures, and organizational structures. They used design methods to combine these building blocks into business models that pay fair wages and serve community needs.
Faculty
Jerry Davis
This course is taught by Jerry Davis, the Gilbert and Ruth Whitaker Professor of Business Administration at the Ross School of Business and Professor of Sociology, The University of Michigan. Davis received his PhD from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Davis’s research is broadly concerned with the corporation as a social and economic vehicle.
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Some of his recent writings examine why corporations have so little insight into their global supply chains and the moral dilemmas this poses; why the social network of corporate elites has fallen apart; what organizational alternative exist to the shareholder-owned corporation; how national institutions shape corporate structures, and what this means for income inequality; how platform capitalism might be tamed to meet human needs other than profit; how management research might help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals; how new technologies have enabled worker political activism within the corporation; and how information and communication technologies have enabled entirely new designs for economic organization. His current book project examines corporate power in the 21st century, and how to tame it.
Cat Johnson
In her role as managing director of the Business+Impact Initiative, Cat leads the team in their work across the school and the University to develop and support impact-related activities. Her career spans nonprofit, social enterprise, and higher education leadership, with a focus in business models for economic mobility. Prior to joining the Business+Impact team, Cat was Chief Operating Officer at Detroit-based social enterprise Empowerment Plan. She has also worked previously at the Ross School of Business in social innovation, and with social enterprises in the U.S. and around the world. Catherine earned a BA, MBA, and MSW from the University of Michigan.
Resources and News
This course received an Aspen Business & Society Ideas Worth Teaching Award in recognition of its expansive purpose, innovative thinking, and integrated, multi-disciplinary approach.
Jerry Davis delivers lecture on creating green energy and equitable enterprise
U-M students create equitable business models for green energy businesses in Detroit
U-M graduate students showcase sustainability ideas for Detroit small businesses
SBN Detroit: Helping Detroiters Create New Businesses for a More Equitable World
Mid-semester, students of the BA670 +Impact Studio course deliver a How-To Guide site for entrepreneurs, with a focus on support for “greening” their businesses. This resource includes over 50 How-To guides for easy download, printing, and sharing, and helps new and existing enterprises learn about emerging policies and innovations and creatively adopt green technologies. You can browse through the list of How-To Guides to find the answers you need in the areas of Business Strategy, Funding, HR Benefits, Investment, and Supplier Resources.
Final Projects: Business Model Blueprints
For their final project, teams present business model concepts in high-impact opportunity areas. A panel of honored community, industry, and academic experts join to ask questions and generate further ideas, followed by a tabling event for guests from Detroit and around campus to engage with the student teams. Here are some of the business model blueprints.
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Sunrise Detroit
Francesca Colombo, MBA
Tai Furnari, MPH
Arushi Rana, MSW
Nathan Shomo, MM
Sunrise Detroit connects small business associations in Detroit with reliable solar-charged sodium-ion generator solutions during power outages and events by providing consulting, coordination, and ongoing support through a franchise model. -
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Community Co-Pilots
Rebecca Epstein, MBA
Anna Norman, MBA/MS
Aki Sato, MSW
Madeline Sumida, MSWCo-Pilot service for clean energy programs with local governments and community-based organizations. Our outreach specialists trained in participatory facilitation go to Detroit communities to educate on energy issues and pilot programs, help community members sign up for projects and fill out documents, and collect feedback from community members.
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Detroit Green
Alyson Grine, MBA
Stella Han, MBA
Zach Nerod, MBA/MS
Prarthana Shevatekar, MSI
Rob Squiers, MBA/MSOur mission is to provide equitable funding, resources, support, and access for green energy in a community-centered, personalized, and tangibly interactive way. We do this through low interest loans for the under-banked, physical space for those seeking guidance and a community presence for creating a sense of support.
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D-Green Hub
Vinicius Briganti, MS/MBA
Maianh Phan, MBA
Brian Plamondon, MBA
Yi Zhang, MEngD-Green Hub would serve as a 15,000 sq. ft facility in the Detroit Metro Area powered by renewable energy. It would rent spaces out to small and medium sized business owners (Hubbers) that utilize light industrial machinery to run their businesse and power their businesses with clean and reliable energy.
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PowerShift
Andrew van Baal, MS
Yuyan Hu, MSI
Jen Linsenmeyer, MSW
Sonali Wijesiriwardena, MBA
Each day, Detroit small business owners could use our mobile platform to identify clean energy upgrades that reduce costs and emissions. PowerShift connects them to local contractors and financing tools so they can take action with confidence and transparency. -
Portable
Connor Donnelly, MBA/MS
Chelsea Gaylord, MPP
Hillary McKenzi, MBA/MS
Jackson Pilutti, MBAOur Mission is to bridge the green energy transition in Detroit and ensure every business has access to clean, reliable, and affordable electricity. Portable creates a rentable marketplace for portable green generators for small businesses that experience energy interruptions and unreliability.
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PowerUP
Kate Connors, MBA
Himanshu Dixit, MBA
Charmaine Kunz, MSW
Linnet Leon, MBA/MS
Jiming Song, MSIPowerUP utilizes AI to deliver a suite of business services to ensure continuity of operations. It informs users on the likelihood of power outages in their area using predictive analytics. Users can request temporary power mobile assistance during a power outage in order to borrow tools like batteries, hotspots, and generators, and provides guidance on clean energy adoption to increase predictability and autonomy.
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Spark Up
Patrick Burden, MBA/MS
Daniela Caetano, MBA
Quinn Foussianes, MS
Sai Madhavi, MBA
Anna Seifert, MPP/MBASpark-Up brings innovative and custom green energy solutions to key spaces of community gatherings in Detroit. These local venues then host Spark-Up as a pop-up experience that showcases green energy. Customers can experience the impact of cleaner energy solutions, get accurate information, connect with ambassadors, and establish a trusted network in their communities in order to better understand energy solutions.
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JerrySolutions AI
Michael Ettlinger, MS
Macey Guthery, MBA
Ziyi Liu, MBA
Lushan Wang, MS
JerrySolutions AI is a one stop shop for building owners and developers in Detroit to easily navigate the permitting and sustainable design process and increase project certainty. Our vision is to transform Detroit into a model city for energy autonomy and sustainable development.
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BioPowerD
Nate Fisher, MBA
Samartha Okyne, MI
Tiara Julien, MI
Arpit Sharma, MBAWe're a member-owned cooperative creating a circular solution for local businesses and communities. We collect food scraps and other biodigestible waste from local small businesses and grocery stores, converting them into renewable natural gas and nutrient-rich fertilizer, reducing landfill waste and creating clean energy.
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GreenSpark Detroit
Jacob Kennedy, MBA/MS
Dylan Johnson, MSCM
Hunter Rowland, MSW
Rachael Zuppke, MIA Detroit-based enterprise that leverages carbon credits to finance energy-efficient upgrades, delivering cost savings and improved energy reliability to small businesses.
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Heat Pump United
Alejandro Villafuerte, MPH/MSW
April Sunid, MS
Dushyanth Aluwihare, MI
Forrest Cox, MBA
Xiaoya Geng, MSWHPU bridges the gap between contractors searching for funding sources, uses existing gas furnaces as backup sources, and helps demonstrate the long-term financial benefits of heat pumps, all to drive heat pump adoption.
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Knowify
Marjunique Louis, MI
Ami Hasebe, MPP
Harrison Brown, MISmall business owners can learn about sustainable practices every week on Knowify and earn knowledge tokens within the application through the community they serve. These tokens empower them to invest in green energy solutions and products, making their businesses more sustainable while benefiting their communities and the environment.
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Lease Green
Liz Li, MS
Michelle Lin, MSCM
Carter Purcell, MBA/MS
Shubham Padgilwar, MSCMWhen small businesses seek to rent a greener commercial space in Detroit, Lease Green help thems negotiate green leases with their landlord, identify energy improvements, and better leverage their tenant-landlord relationships to find win-win solutions for businesses, communities, and the environment.
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Sunshine Ports
Qingquing Yan, MA
Javian Hale, MS
Prudhvi Potluri, MBAOur solution is to build solar power plants in abandoned schools which will be used to charge batteries to be delivered by our delivery executives every day to small outdoor businesses in Detroit.
This will help small businesses use clean energy and reduce carbon emissions without having to incur high installation costs.
“Diversity in teams leads to innovation. In the +Impact Studio course, I had the unique opportunity to work with other grad students on campus. We were able to bring our own perspectives and bridge broader ideas together to design solutions for communities affected by COVID-19."
— Katarina Chan (MBA)